Sunday 30 September 2012

New baby pants from old shorts!

When I last went shopping for new clothes for Aiden (which is quite a frequent occurrence since he is growing so fast!), I was disappointed in the lack of long pants that weren't trackies or jeans. The weather is warming up so trackies are a bit too hot now. I found a few tutorials on line that had patterns for pants for babies, so I decided to make Aiden a couple of pairs from some old shorts of Gus'.

Before, 1 pair of mens shorts:

First I took apart the shorts by cutting the seams & unpicking the pockets on the back. I used a pattern from danamadeit.com, the shorts were just the right size for small pants:

I cut the shorts a bit smaller than the pattern as the pattern was for a size 2-3, but when I sewed it together they were too small! So I unpicked the outside leg seams & added a strip about 2" wide then resewed the legs back together, after seams there is just over an inch of extra fabric in the legs :) a good fix, looks OK & fits well :) maybe a bit too baggy in the legs, but a good fit over a cloth nappy bum!

After:

Plenty of room in the length for growing!

Tuesday 25 September 2012

I've been a busy bee sewing up a storm...

Since I've been at home I haven't done any baking, BUT, I have done alot of sewing.

The 1st thing I made was some new cushion covers. These were made from a spare curtain so match the new curtains we put up in the house. I made an envelope back so no need for a zip, just a couple of velcro tabs to stop the cushion trying to escape out the back.
I had a go at quilting as well. I plan on making Aiden a quilt for once he is out of the cot (probably far too soon), so thought I better practice on something smaller! I made a table runner for christmas. I quilted in simple straight lines, the binding was the tricky part so what you see here is the 2nd attempt at binding! Much better than the 1st :)
The back was a nice christmassy print too.
Over the last week or so I have been enjoying having the sewing machine set up in the office, so whenever I feel like sewing, and Aiden is asleep, it's all ready to go.
Last week I finished recycling (?) an old set of flannelette sheets from our bed (king size) into single sized ones for Aiden, no pics, but they're a lovely dark blue, perfect for a little boy :)
I made a pretty sewing machine cover too. This used some cute fat quarters & some leftover material from the sheets.
Who knew my sewing machine would get such a workout! So here is it's nice new cover to keep it happy :)